[Justonevoice]

It is important that we attend Council Meetings when our issue is being discussed and to speak when we can. However one of the most effective ways to do that is to write to the council so that your point of view is documented and goes on record. So if youhave nothing to hide and are not afraid of going on public record please take the time to write a letter and mail it.

The following is a letter I wrote to council today:

Dear Los Angeles City Council,

Hello, my name is ***** *****. I am a cancer patient, I suffer from chronic back and leg pain from an on the job injury many years ago. I use medical cannabis for these issues.

I formerly operated a true non-profit collective in the City of Los Angeles that was pre-ico and properly registered. I am a Co-Founder of the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance (GLACA) and a former board member. I was forced to close our facility because of the lack of action enforcing the ICO and so now I am just another sick and unemployed American.

I have been before the council and spoke many times in the last 2 plus years and am writing you’re with sincere concern. When we started working on regulation for collectives in LA it seemed like the Council was willing and prepared to do exactly that although the last two years have been a complete failure in this respect and each and every one of you are partially responsible. I agree and am just as upset with those whom did not follow the rules and also hold them partially responsible. In addition the outgoing City Attorney Rock Del Gidillo is also partially responsible.

You folks illegally extended the ICO (which even I not being an attorney could of advised you against this move) which only served to muck up the movement for sensible regulation. So, now here we sit with our new C.A. attempting to take advantage of the situation and express pass his suggestion of a draft ordinance that is not only unreasonable but is based on inaccurate information and downright lies.

What the C.A. is demonstrating alongside the District Attorney of Los Angeles is a step backwards from where we even began. It is apparent to me and many others that the C.A. and the D.A. are propagating more propaganda and “Refer Madness” and playing politics.

This is not about politics but instead is about bringing relieve to those that are sick & dying through providing “Safe Access” to medicine that helps us live productive fulfilling lives.

I am writing to ask you to do the right thing and listen to those advocates that sat on the working group with city staff and make the needed changes to the proposed ordinance to allow for the following:


1) Edibles- Edible medicine is very necessary for patients that cannot ingest cannabis by smoking. These folks need this medicine too. Please do not ban these but instead require them to have all active ingredients listed on a label just like any other product sold in America. Require each collective that carries these edible products to have on filed the County Food –Preparer Permit and documentation of the professional kitchen used to prepare products (such as the one located in Pasadena).


2) Cash re-imbursement- Many of us cannot grow our own medicine for many different reasons including but not limited to, no room for garden, too sick for garden work, live in section 8 housing, landlord will not allow. The point is that here in Los Angeles we really do not want residential streets throughout our city that have 20 homes on them to have three or four gardens on a block ,do we? It is a much safer and better system to have the product grown in a remote location and then brought into the city to a storefront location. Contrary to what the C.A. and the D.A. are purporting the courts have continuously allowed for cash reimbursement for Medical Cannabis. I urge you to pay attention to ALL of the information that has been submitted by Americans for Safe Access and GLACA. Pleas pay attention to our Attorney General Jerry Brown’s guidelines. When you are sick and your doctor writes you a prescription do you not have to pay for your medicine? Use common sense here! The State, County and yes the City receive tax revenue from the existing Medical Cannabis Collectives. If it is illegal to sell Cannabis for medical reasons would it not be illegal to collect sales tax on it?

3) Patient Cultivator Privacy- while I understand the need to insure that each collectives supply of medicine comes from a closed loop system, The C.A.’s draft goes beyond reason when it comes to protecting the privacy of patients. What many of the opponents of Medical Cannabis would like you to believe is that Collectives in general get their medicine from any source that they can. I can assure you that is not the case in the majority of collectives. You see we as patients want and need the best, most effective and SAFEST medicine we can get and that is why we all have reliable source’s for medicine, OTHER PATIENTS. And each patient deserves and requires the same right of privacy as any other whether they are cultivators or not.

4) Locations- while I understand and respect those fears of parents, educators, religious leaders etc regarding the youth of Los Angeles Requiring collectives to be more than 1000 feet from sensitive use areas is excessive. Strip Clubs, Adult Book Stores, Bars and liquor stores are all only required a 500 foot distance. This seems very lopsided to me being that most collectives are discreet, Have security in the form of surveillance systems and uniformed security.

5) Voluntary Advisory Panel- Create a panel of volunteers from Neighborhood Councils, Cannabis Patients, Cannabis Providers, City Officials and Doctors to oversee these collectives that are left behind after regulation is completed. We already have a budget problem why add more to it when there are those whom are willing to step up and volunteer to oversee this in a level headed manor and no or little cost to the City. It is important that constant regulation and enforcement be effective, fair and balanced to make this all work and continue to work.

6) Signage- disallow any signage that is fluorescent, signs with leaves, pipes, or anything that could b e non-medically related. Some of these people whom have opened up shops have put large pot leaf- fluorescent lit signs in their windows and these not only bring attention to the location from the patients looking for them but also children. Every collective should be discreet and considerate to their neighborhood. Strict sign ordinance should be enacted and enforced.

7)Do this quickly, effectively and most of all fairly. Patients groups and collectives are prepared to fight for what is right even if we must take The City to court when litigation is not necessary nor can the City afford it. Do not lose needed tax revenue; do not force patients in Los Angeles to sue the City.

I must remind you folks that patients in LA are many and most of us vote and many of us know how to rally the vote as we did for our new City Attorney. I implore you to do your job, do it responsibly, compassionately and most of all do it right.

***** ******, 40 plus year resident of Los Angeles

[BrattonBasher]

Nice job JOV. I covered alot of that in mine, and added that our streets are not safe at all, so spending so much time and money on this prohibition is absurd. I also emphasized the fact that the entire nation is watching, and offered them links to National stories about this. LOL I also used "reefer madness".

[VooDoo Chile]

For anyone interested, here's a link to Zine's office information, including a handy dandy e-mailer right on the page.

Welcome To Council District 3: Councilmember Dennis P. Zine

Personally, I'm gonna try calling his office right now and see what happens. I'll let y'all know what transpires.

[Justonevoice]

Originally Posted by VooDoo Chile

For anyone interested, here's a link to Zine's office information, including a handy dandy e-mailer right on the page.

Welcome To Council District 3: Councilmember Dennis P. Zine

Personally, I'm gonna try calling his office right now and see what happens. I'll let y'all know what transpires.

This is good also but if you write a letter it goes on record and then and only then can there be legal challenges. It is important to write!

[VooDoo Chile]

So I called his valley office. No go there. They told me that some lady named Marisol Espinoza is in charge of this issue for Zine? I guess she's part of his staff. She can be e-mailed at marisol.espinoza@lacity.org. Now this info is coming from the staff member who answered, so it may or may not be reliable. Contacting her is worth a shot though.

Anyways, they transferred me to his downtown office, and a staffer answered, took down my contact info, and actually seemed to be typing in my objections to the proposed ordinance. I wasn't exactly prepared for that, so I rattled off that I'm concerned about safe access, and banning donations isn't it fair to a patient like myself who can't grow their own meds. Then I said that banning edibles is insulting to chemo patients and shouldn't even be on the table. So, yeah, I kinda fucked that up, but c'est la. It's better than nothing.

[mr2u]

good letter

[VooDoo Chile]

Dude that goddamn e-mail thingie on Zine's website doesn't work. WTF.

So whatever.

Here's a link to the whole city council's contact info. Note that their e-mails don't automatically appear and ya gotta click on all of'em individually so as to piss ya off. To further piss ya off and deter comments, the page won't load properly most of the time and will be extremely slow. Just hang with it and WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Official Web Site of The City of Los Angeles - City Council

[1stimer]

Here is a letter I sent to all council members

Dear Council Member,

I strongly urge you to reject the 4th medical cannabis ordinance coming before the city council. It does not provide safe access to patients.


It is an unworkable plan specifically in

Section 45.19.6.3, Subsection A, #3

#3 A 1000 ft radius from schools, churches, day care centers, other co-ops, hospitals, youth centers, and substance abuse treatment centers is unrealistic. A 500 ft radius would be workable. Also why not near a hospital, This IS MEDICINE after all.

Section 45.19.6.3 Subsection B, #1,5,6,8,and 13

# 1 consent to a search without a search warrant???? is that even legal???

# 5 To limit the hours of operation is not right. There are many people who work just during those hours. I know I have gone to work at 8 am and not gotten off till 8 pm many, many, times. When am I supposed to able to my medicine if the hours of operation are limited from 10am to 8pm. If anything it should be more like alcohol. No collective should be open between 12am-6am or something along those lines would be fine.

# 6 I need to be able to compensate my caregiver for the time and effort it took to produce my medicine. I do not and can not grow my own medicine. The only way for me to be a part of the collective is by my financial contribution. # 6 would eliminate the only way I can participate in a co-op.

# 8 To make it so that a collective could only have 5lbs of dried marijuana and must culltivate themselves is just not feasible. There are 1000s of different varieties of marijuana and each of them have different effects on people. This would limit a persons choice to the medicine s/he needs. Also not all collective owners are green thumbs in fact most rely on their members to cultivate for them.



#13 A lot of patients come from out of town to get their medicine. Not allowing marijuana to be consumed/ingested at the collective site would leave a lot of patients in pain and agony.



Thank you for time in this matter and I sincerely hope that you will reject this 4th Ordinance.

Sincerely –

I also called most of the council members and used the points in my letter as to why I object to this ordinance. I hope this helps someone.

[washgirl]

Hey if writing a letter is too hard TWEET the mayor @villaraigosa How many members do we have? Everyone tweet! Overload him with tweets and find out why he is wasting tax dollars on raids!